Whereas César Estrada Chávez was born on March 31, 1927,
near Yuma, Arizona;

Whereas César Estrada Chávez spent his early years on a
family farm;

Whereas, at the age of 10, César Estrada Chávez joined the
thousands of migrant farm workers laboring in fields and vineyards throughout
the Southwest after a bank foreclosure resulted in the loss of the family
farm;

Whereas César Estrada Chávez, after attending more than 30
elementary and middle schools and achieving an eighth grade education, left
school to work full-time as a farm worker to help support his family;

Whereas, at the age of 17, César Estrada Chávez entered
the United States Navy and served the United States with distinction for 2
years;

Whereas, in 1948, César Estrada Chávez returned from
military service to marry Helen Fabela, whom he had met while working in the
vineyards of central California;

Whereas César Estrada Chávez and Helen Fabela had 8
children;

Whereas, as early as 1949, César Estrada Chávez was
committed to organizing farm workers to campaign for safe and fair working
conditions, reasonable wages, livable housing, and the outlawing of child
labor;

Whereas, in 1952, César Estrada Chávez joined the
Community Service Organization, a prominent Latino civil rights group, and
worked with the organization—

(1)

to coordinate
voter registration drives; and

(2)

to conduct
campaigns against discrimination in East Los Angeles;

Whereas César Estrada Chávez served as the national
director of the Community Service Organization;

Whereas, in 1962, César Estrada Chávez left the Community
Service Organization to found the National Farm Workers Association, which
eventually became the United Farm Workers of America;

Whereas César Estrada Chávez was a strong believer in the
principles of nonviolence practiced by Mahatma Gandhi and Dr. Martin Luther
King, Jr.;

Whereas César Estrada Chávez effectively used peaceful
tactics that included fasting for 25 days in 1968, 25 days in 1972, and 38 days
in 1988, to call attention to the terrible working and living conditions of
farm workers in the United States;